The draws for the 2010 World Championships were made in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, there were little doubts about the top seed in the men’s singles draw with Lee Chong Wei taking the #1 seed but there will be no rematch of the 2009 final in Paris on August 29.

Lee Chong Wei begins his campaign against Kevin Cordon, the world number 46 from Guatemala and could face a tricky second round match against world #22 Muhammad Hafiz Hashim in an all-Malaysian second round encounter. The other seed in Lee Chong Wei’s section is Jan O Jorgensen, seeded 11. The Dane has had a disappointing 2010 after bursting onto the world scene with victory over Peter Gade in Denmark and reaching the Chinese Super Series final in 2009. He begins his campaign against the Austrian Michael Lahnsteiner, ranked 86 in the world. His second round encounter will be a much tougher match with one of the best matches of the opening round with Eric Pang taking on Rajiv Ouseph for the chance to play Jorgensen or Lahnsteiner in Round 2.

Taufik Hidiyat received the 5th seed and with that, he plays Ola Fagbemi of Nigeria who is the lowest ranked player in the draw, ranked #122 in the world. His likely second round opponent is ranked almost 100 places higher in the world rankings, world #23 Yu Shin Hsieh of Chinese Taipei who takes on Portugal’s Pedro Martins in Round 1. The other seed is Kenichi Tago, one of the breakout stories of 2010 who is the #12 seed and faces the Czech national champion Petr Koukal, the world #48 in the opening round.

Lin Dan has barely played in 2010, but is still the Chinese #1 and seeded 3 for the Worlds and begins his campaign against Ali Shahhossieni of Iran, ranked 110 in the world before potentially playing the winner of the all-European match between Henrik Toth and Henri Hurskainen in the second round. The conspiracy theorists will claim that Lin Dan’s opening two matches could be the easiest run to the last 16 of any of the seeds, with only Hurskainen inside the top 50 in the world (ranked 50th). His first big test will be against Bao Chunlai, seeded 10 and the player who defeated him in the 2010 All England. The 10th seed begins against Yan Kit Chan who is current ranked 20th in the world in one of the hardest opening round match for any seed. If anything, the winner of this match will have an easier second round match, playing the winner of David Snider of Canada (ranked 89) and Scotland’s Alistair Casey (ranked 78).

Tien Minh Nguyen may not have won in Chinese Taipei to gain him more ranking points but is still seeded 7 and plays the world number 62 Ukrainian Valeriy Atrashchenkov in his opening round match. The winner of Raul Must and Dieter Domke is likely to play the Vietnamese player in round 2. Park Sung Hwan is the other seed in this section, the 13th seeded Korean takes on Derek Wong Zi Liang of Singapore, ranked 79 in the world with Park likely to play the winner of another all-European clash between Matthieu Lo Ying Ping and Vladimir Ivanov in the opening round.

The opening section from the bottom half of the draw is arguably the hardest one to come out of, with England’s Carl Baxter, ranked 27 in the world taking on Slovakia’s Michal Matejka for the chance to play the 9th seeded Boonsak Ponsana, should he defeat world number 52 Vladimir Malkov of Russia. The other seed is Simon Santoso, winner in Chinese Taipei and seeded 8. He takes on Poland’s Przemyslaw Wacha, ranked 37 in the world with the winner of that match taking on the winner of Scott Evans, ranked 45 in the world and Hsuan Yi Hsueh of Chinese Taipei, ranked 41 in the world.

The 14th seed Chetan Anand begins his campaign against Ashton Chen Ong Zhao, ranked 112th in the world in one of the bigger mismatches of the opening round and likely to play the winner of Dmytro Zavadsky and Stephan Wojcikiewicz, ranked 47 and 56 respectively. The other seed in the section is the 4th seeded Chen Jin who begins his campaign against Finland’s #1 and world #53 Ville Lang in his opening round. The other match and potentially Chen Jin’s second round opponent is between Kestutis Navickas of Lithuania, the world number 59 and Scotland’s #1 Kieran Merrilees, ranked 72 in the world.

Wong Choong Hann received the 16th seed and will take on France’s own Simon Maunoury in his opening round match in the French capital, but the world number 81 will need to play the match of his life to reach round 2. The other match to determine the winner of the Wong/Maunoury match is between Iran’s Kaveh Mehrabi, ranked 92nd in the world and Kazushi Yamada of Japan, ranked 30 in the world. Sony Kuncoro won in Macau two weeks ago and the 6th seed comes into the championships in excellent form and begins his campaign against Misha Zilberman of Israel, ranked 84th in the world in round 1. Another all-European clash is the last match in the section with world #25 Dicky Palyama of Holland taking on the 3rd Frenchman in the draw, US Open runner-up Brice Leverdez for a place in round 2.

The final section is the only one with two European seeds, with 15th seed Marc Zwiebler taking on the Czech Jan Vondra in his opening round match and a second all-European match guarantees at least one European in the last 16, with Sweden’s Magnus Sahlberg taking on Pablo Abian of Spain. Peter Gade comes into the competition as the number 2 seed and starts his campaign against Brazilian Daniel Paiola, ranked 74 in the world. The big news from this section of the draw is world number 15 Yun Hu not receiving a seeding for the event despite Chen Long not being able to play as China’s #4 and world #10 and plays Shon Wan Ho of Korea, the world number 35 in his opening match and a likely second round match against Peter Gade, which would likely be the match of the second round.

With Denmark and Poland enjoying byes to the semi-finals, Germany, Russia, Ukraine and the Netherlands fought to become their opponents.

In the team tie between Germany and Russia the Germans drew first blood, and appeared to be positioned to run away with the tie, but things would not be that easy. Denmark Super Series finalist Marc Zwiebler quickly disposed of his opponent Vladimir Malkov 21-9, 21-9, which was then followed by Marcel Reuter winning a squeaker over Vladimir Ivanov 22-20, 25-23. Fabian Hammes was however unable to close out the tie losing badly to Stanislav Pukhov 21-14, 21-7. The Russian’s first men’s doubles Durkin and Nikolaenko also did their jobs defeating Fuchs and Kindervarter 21-17, 21-15 to set up a fifth and final match. Unfortunately for the Russians their comeback was for nothing as the German pair of Hopp and Schoettler pulled off the win over Dremin and Pukhov in three close games 16-21, 21-19, 21-15. Germany will now face Denmark in the semi-finals.

The other quarter-final tie was not nearly as close however, with Ukraine defeating their Dutch opponents with relative comfort. Dmytro Zavadsky defeated Rune Massing 21-12, 21-13, Valeriy Atrashchenkov defeated Lester Oey 21-12, 21-12, and the only close match was between Vladislav Druzchenko and Saber Afif with Druzchenko winning in three games 21-13, 19-21, 21-13 to seal the win 3-0. Ukraine will now face Poland in their semi-finals.

Women’s Events

Once again the Danish team had an opportunity for rest as the were through with a bye to the semis alongside the Netherlands. The Danes would face the winners of Germany and Bulgaria. The Germans proved too strong for the Bulgarians winning in three straight matches. Juliane Schenk led the way with her win over Petya Nedelcheva, followed by Karin Schnasse beating Linda Zetchiri, and finally Fabienne Deprez defeating Dimitria Popstoykova. The Germans will now face Denmark.

The next tie was between Russia and Scotland. The first women’s singles was between Ella Diehl and Susan Egelstaff who faced off against each other in the Scottish International in late 2009. In that meeting Egelstaff was the victor, but Diehl had her revenge winning easily 21-12, 21-12. Tatjana Bibik took the next point for Russia beating Linda Sloan 21-14, 21-9. Finally it was the Russian pairing of Vislova and Sorokina who would seal their team’s place in the semi-finals with a win over Bankier and Mason 21-11, 21-15. The Russians will now play the Netherlands.
Click here for full results from the European Team Championships 2010